I've long been a fan of the Neil Thomas wargaming books, I like the writer's style as well as the simplicity of the rules themselves.
This game was to try out the medieval rules in his Ancient and Medieval wargaming, a bargain book which includes several sets of rules as well as all the army lists you will ever need.
The rules don't include siege rules so I literally wrote some amendments on the back of an envelope which worked really well.
The scenario was an English attack on a French castle. The figures are all 28mm, various makes with quite a lot of Perry's and GW Bretonnians.
The castle is also GW, siege towers are scratch built from coffee stirrers and button wheels and the trebuchets are 1980s Atlantic.
This produced a well balanced game which was great fun. There were 8 units of French attacked by 12 units of English - possibly more English would have been better.
The English plan was to attack all four sides at once - using a bombard to blow in the gates on the north side, two siege towers on the south side, another siege tower on the west and a ladder assault on the east. The trebuchets would be used to knock out the French missile trrops.
The troops going up the ladders were always going to have a tough job on their hands but this was about trying out the rules rather than playing to win.
Ultimately the English managed to capture one wall, but lost too many men scaling the ladders. The cannon exploded before it could blow the gates off.
The initial set up.
One of the siege towers rumbles forward.
Trebuchet with siege tower in the background. The trebuchets were very effective against the defender crossbowmen.
Two siege towers approach the south wall.
The defenders prepare the boiling oil....you can also see pile of rocks ready to be dropped on the attackers. These were "one shot" weapons.
The English assault the east wall with ladders - initially this attack went well, the English gained a foothold.
English knights storm onto the walls.
The English towers unleash attackers on the south and west walls. It looks sticky for the defenders. The defenders catapult has damaged one of the towers but failed to stop it.
The rules amended for the game only allowed bases in contact to fight which contained the English assault and archers in the towers were allowed to fire down at their rear ranks.
Double trouble - two siege towers on one wall!
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